Thursday, February 9, 2017 • APG News B7

ence if they were proficient on all the apps they had on their cell phones, and asked SOFTWARE how anyone could be expected to master Frompage B1 129 applications efficiently, which drew sustainment of software to enable current quite a bit of laughter. and future Army Warfighting functions in “The number one problem there, for the the execution of unified land operations. average field commander, is not knowing The Software Solarium construct ad- what [new and upgraded equipment] dresses the direction of a developing means to you, and we tell them in every strategy to manage software, which has [leader training] class, if you don’t know become an essential element of nearly every what this stuff does for you, that’s problem battle and business system in the Army. number one,” Anderson said. “Our biggest According to Army leaders, “It is a para- challenge related to readiness is training. If digm shift to recognize software systems as commanders won’t designate the time to critical ‘equipment’ needed to maintain focus on that, there’s no way you will be able overmatch in the Mutli-Domain Battle.” to operate. It’s that simple.” The reliance of software to enable Breakout sessions were conducted for warfighting systems across the Army, has U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY PHILIP MOLTER, CECOM each Line of Effort, and each session elevated its management to a key Army CECOM Software Engineering Center Director Medhat Abuhantash introduces the four provided near and far-term follow-on readiness focus. “The number one focus of Line of Effort breakout group chairs, from left Matthew Shoultz, Judith Pinsky, Michael actions for the Army. the Chief (of Staff of the Army) is on those Crapanzano and Mark Hosson, to the Software Solarium 2 audience. “The next steps are going to be to Soldiers that will be in the fight, to make ’crystalize’ the outputs from the Solarium. sure he or she have all of the training, all of technology overmatch in the evolving and The Solarium approached software as an Each of our teams provided an out brief on the resources, available to them to execute increasingly complex software environ- enabling capability of all Army systems and the four Lines of Effort. We’re going to take their missions,” LTG Robert Ferrell the ment. sought to provide policy and governance what we learned into a couple of different Army’s Chief Information Officer/G6 said. More than 400 people took part in recommendations concerning not only decision-making forums in the Army,” said “We’re looking at what’s currently aligned, Solarium II, more than doubling attend- software acquisition practices but also how Major General Bruce Crawford, command- and what’s missing, and what we’re doing ance from the first event. Unique to this to unify effort to deliver software enhance- er CECOM. “While we continue to socialize here today is looking at the gaps and seams Solarium was the inclusion of industry ments and protection patches to field units our efforts throughout the enterprise, we that we need to fill as we move forward.” partners from both traditional defense faster. This will help prevent units from know we have about four or five things that Software Solarium I, held in September suppliers but also non-traditional busi- operating on different software baselines, we would like the Army to tell us to do now. 2016, developed lines of effort to foster a nesses, such as CITI Group, who are also which could impact the ability to communi- There are some near term actions that can coherent approach to software growth in an grappling with software management and cate or share information. be taken and we’re going to brief those attempt to prioritize challenges associated cyber protection issues. Industry, academic “From the commander’s perspective, do formally to the leadership of the Army.” with cradle to grave software acquisition, and defense leaders and experts were able you have the tools and do you have the Among those proposed ne